CHENNAI: Contrary to the notion that cities yield the highest incidence of hypertension and stress, a study has shown that people in smaller towns are all poised to edge the urban crowd out with their stress levels. The study done by the Purse His research team, sponsored by the Technology Development and Transfer Division, Department of Science and Technology - Government of India, the instances of hypertension among the urban population tops the chart, with 18.64 per cent when compared to the semi-urban index of 18.1 per cent. But, when combined with pre-hypertension levels, the picture is starkly different. As Dr S Thanikachalam, Chairman and Director of the Cardiac Care Centre at Sri Ramachandra University, put it, “It was quite astounding to see that the prevalence of pre-hypertension in towns and semi-urban places was 42.31 per cent of our sample studied.” Pre-hypertension suggests that a person’s blood pressure lies consistently between 130/85 and 140/95 mm of mercury. Interestingly, as much as 23.9 per cent of people from villages showed symptoms of pre-hypertension. As part of the study, as many as 8,142 people from across the country were surveyed between April 2008 and June 2011.Similarly, despite the city folk topping the diabetes charts (19.32 per cent) as opposed to towns (17.82 per cent) or villages (12.05 per cent), the number of new diabetics offered a stark contrast. “People from villages seemed to have the highest rate of new diabetics, with 6.35 per cent over those living in cities (5.44 per cent),” said Dr Thanikachalam.
Comments
0 comment